Alfheimr Renaissance

Sailing to Borgarsandr, day 5

We left Kambsnes early, long before I woke up and I'm, as usual, far too tired in the morning. Iselin has fetched breakfast and a bowl of water to wash my face and hands in. She asks if I shouldn't blow my nose in it too. I explains it's not particularly clean, but I understands why they might want to do so if they slept next to a fireplace. When I see Iselin and Eira about to wash themselves in the same water, I ask her to get new, or that they go away and wash themselves in their own water. They are surprised when I want them to use their own water to wash, but they of course do as I ask them. I hope they eventually will stop being surprised at how I do things. I guess it's a long way there.

Damn, that I have the moral principles I have. I would very much like to share a bed with Iselin again. Not just for sex but to feel her sweet cuddly body against mine. Just lying here with her in the cabin and letting time go by would be so nice. I need to distract myself with something and stop thinking about her sweet face, soft lips, intense eyes, beautiful hair and delicious body that's so nice to caress and the cute little sounds she makes...

ARGH!!

Something else! What do ships need? What do ships in Midgård have?

Lanterns have no purpose. Another sail solution doesn't seem to work well with this boat, rigging and design. Life buoys? Life preservers or so. Are there any suitable materials for this? Cork is only found on the Spanish/Iberian Peninsula, right?

A little later I ask Danr, Toke, Cnut, Hagan and the other sailors if there is any material that floats and is waterproof and resistant to blows. Making a life buoy or life preserver would be useful. A cork-filled ring with rope on the outside to grip and a rope to pull the person in would be a good idea.

Someone knows that there is a type of very light wood bark but it comes from far away on the other side of Frigonien and is quite expensive. Floats etc, are made from it. Sounds like cork from Spain. If you drive around there, you will see a lot of cork trees with the bark peeled and the trunk painted to protect the tree. It looks quite weird. I might have to check if it's possible to buy a larger load of cork and what it costs. A life buoy on each ship's mast or stern feels like a good idea, because it's common for people to not be able to swim, and being weighed down with clothes makes it harder. Several of the sailors can't swim. Sailboats also don't have an engine and can't quickly turn around if someone falls overboard, and bigger boats like this can only be badly rowed in light wind. Maybe introduce the principle of pulling a long rope after a large boat so people falling overboard have a chance to grab hold in bad weather?

Apparently, bundles of birch bark are used as flows for nets, and there are birch bark canoes and mugs so it should be waterproof. Huh... Don't I have a documentary about timber houses built in Finland, in the old way where they seal under the floor with birch bark? And wouldn't such a house be much more modern and pleasant than the most common timber longhouses and stone houses here? But preferably with wood paneling on the outside with sawdust and woodchips for better insulation, moisture protection and for drainage in case of rain. Thick walls, probably 40 cm. With the right design, it can be built large as well, and should go much faster than building with stone, and avoids the cost of mortar and the transportation of stone. Maybe mix in a little Swiss alp style with stone and timber, or in combination with a more open modern floor plan, with treated or painted exterior. They obviously have mortar everywhere.

A house with two floors would be nice, with fireplaces suitably distributed and chimneys up that heat the rooms upstairs, possibly with a smaller fireplace there. A larger room in the middle with double ceiling height and maybe a balcony. It would look nice with a glass front facing some nice view and preferably south facing. Nice glass windows, stained glass or mosaics as well, but they don't have triple glazed windows here. Heh... they have just single glazed windows and I'm very happy about that. Can I build a double glazed window? There really only need to be two window frames with glass, and I can easily do it with one that opens outwards and one that opens inwards with a few centimeters of air in between. Might have to be a couple of decimeters instead for practicality. Especially in the winter it would be really nice. It can be made so that the inner window can easily be removed and is optional and can be mounted later. Not much point in having well insulated walls if the windows let all the heat out. I could have double doors with glass as well. Okay, I'm going to need a hell of a lot of glass and logs, as well as a bunch of skilled carpenters and masons, but it would be so worth it, and work here is cheap; metal and luxury are the expensive ones. Boring Castles or Longhouses can go to hell. I will need a lot of money to be able to build a nice big house with modern conveniences and style....

Hummm...

... and what the hell was I doing? It's dangerous to go on a tangent like that, but completely normal for me and a good distraction from Iselin and her body. Stop! Back away slowly.

Right...

I talk to the sailors a bit and they tell me that if the bark from the birch is allowed to dry, it works well to light fires even if it's wet on the outside, and when it's dry it doesn't get wet on the inside again. But if the bark gets cold, it cracks, even before the ice freezes. So it can get wet during winter. But it sounds like an alternative for large parts of the year, and cheap as it is basically everywhere in Scandinavia. Especially way up north where the wilderness is mountains, water, bogs or mountain birch.

Birch bark is basically as good as it can be for what I intend to use it for, given this world's technology and my plan of giving it away to the people for the greater good. When I walked around and talked to people, I asked who have slept in hammocks and if they liked it. Some seem to prefer the sleeping pelts while others seem to think it's a gift from the Gods, and meet me with respect and gratitude. Feels good. Real good.

A dangerous feeling.

The rest of the day I think about the design of life preservers and possibly life buoys, and how I can try to make a ship compass and much more. I'm also thinking about ways to strap myself in bed, because I don't like how it swings and moves in the wind. I should have expected it on Norway's west coast.

I remember that in Midgård I should now definitely be counted as missing. Seven nights here, i.e. three nights after I should have come out of Hardangervidda. I wonder if my world is in chaos or not. But I need to stop thinking about it, as I will probably never find out. I've also been thinking about what to do with Iselin and Eira. I absolutely don't need two maids. At least not yet, but it's certainly good in the future on a small farm. But the whole idea of slaves in my service makes me uncomfortable. I dislike having maids or servants, but I will need them. I also dislike the concept of around the clock service without leave, even though in most cases there is probably nothing to do on leave, perhaps if the leave is longer and combined.

It looks so different from the sea, but much of the coast is too similar. I'm not sure which of these bays is the right one, but one of them should be a very narrow and long fjord. It feels more like driving across a river than a fjord teens of kilometers deep and you need to see a map to understand it. About 5km north of that bridge there is a large Titanium mine. In the future, I should try to send someone to figure out where, and see if I can make Titanium. It will be significantly more problem than creating iron and I have no real idea how to make titanium from ore. How difficult is it? I also don't know if it's worth it. I remember the problems they had with doing things in titanium for the SR71, but that's about it. And that was problems in a high tech secret spy plane program with 1950 era technology. But titanium can be used for prostheses or attaching things to bones, and is one of the few things the body doesn't repel. Oh, well. Until that future, my titanium cutlery is probably the only titanium in Alfheimr. If I ever need titanium, it feels like that will be far in the future. So, finding the deposit, mining it and melting it is a future issue.

The wind is strong in the sails, the sailing goes fast and the crew is in a good mood. Apparently those who rested during the day have really appreciated the hammocks and how they reduce the ship's rocking, and more are beginning to realise the benefits. It is also cheap enough that everyone can make it themselves, so even if they don't use it every night, it seems worth having in some weather.

We arrive at Dufansdalr, which should be around Midgårds Flekkefjord late in the evening without any problems, but then I'm already in the cabin getting ready to sleep. Man, it's hard to sleep when I know and can hear Iselin and Eira in the other bed.